IceStorm 98 Study

Art Page did not appreciate the scope of the event until Monday when they learned that the power would not be on for some time. They were totally unprepared and got off to a slow start. At first everyone was concerned with their own welfare -- clearing driveways and so forth -- and did not even make contact with the Reeve until Sunday at which time it was agreed that "things looked bad" and that they should do something. The power went out Thursday morning at 12 minutes after 4 in the morning.

Art Page walked around his own area to see if everything was all right and ended up at the Reeve's house -- which was close to his own -- who could not get out of his driveway. They got him out and Monday they started planning their response.

Monday: they decided that they had to have some [place for a shelter] and the Rockport Community Centre seemed like the best place. The centre was never an overnight shelter -- rather a drop in centre where people's needs could be met, where people could pick up water. The biggest part of the population is in Rockport. The north end of the township is sparsely populated with farms -- they would have to realize that "as such" -- that the Rockport Center would serve "the most amount of people and they could get the most amount of help." The community centre is privately owned. The community centre -- which is on the Escott-Rockport Road is about six or eight miles north of Rockport -- but the township hall was not adequate for the type of things that were needed.

There was radio but the phones were unavailable until Monday. To that point people could not get out of their own driveways -- for the first couple of days. Nor did anybody realize -- even by Friday -- or expect the disaster "as such." Power failures of 2 or 3 days duration are not uncommon in that region, so it took some time for the extent of the emergency to become apparent.

They got set up in the Rockport Center just to serve meals but it grew from there -- they got generators and volunteers. The volunteers took the generators around to pump basements, they left the generators for 2 or 3 hours and then the same guys who delivered them went to pick them up again. They found homes for generators for overnights. The Standard Church in Brockville called every morning to ascertain what was needed at the Rockport shelter. By Wednesday, the locally donated generator -- which was only able to run for two hours was starting to be inadequate and at that point the Coast Guard showed up with a much larger diesel unit -- and they hooked it up -- and "from then on we didn't have too much problem." This freed up some volunteers. People came in to make sandwiches and soup and the health department told them what they could and could not do. The military came in. They started to organize a community house search. Then the army stepped in and they got drivers. So they did three searches with the military.

Regular meetings of the principals started on Tuesday, twice daily -- not all could meet all the time, but everyone was in touch all the time. Art Page did not think about authority -- he "just went ahead and did what we thought was best at the time." Nor did Art Page think about money, it "was secondary."

A lot of the phones were out, most information came through the military and volunteers coming back from the community. If someone needed water or wood, they had it delivered. In this manner firewood, candles, batteries, kerosene were delivered -- mostly to older people. There were no formal meetings to allocate these items, they were simply distributed as needed and sent out by truck. If someone needed a generator just to keep a freezer cold, they would not get it -- they were polite -- but they also had authority to make that decision. Decision-making was decentralized and autonomous.

The 659 (Lansdowne) telephone system came on before the Bell system which caused many problems -- two different phone books and systems. "When you phoned somebody it rang as if it was busy -- and the Bell, it rang as if no one was home. It was very frustrating."

Messages were conveyed to the public via the Brockville radio station, which was the responsibility of the Reeve. Most communication was face to face -- there was someone in the recreation centre at least 18 hours per day, not on a schedule but whoever was able to be there.

Art Page worked with Paul Tulk -- for whom Page has high praise -- "he saved us." Most of the councilors were newly elected and had no experience with emergency planning or response. "He was always there with a helping hand.... I gotta give that man a lotta credit." Tulk knew how to talk to the army and get things from the Coast Guard.

The Township leases fire services -- half from Front of Leeds & Lansdowne and half from Front of Yonge. Surplus resources were shipped in from the neighboring areas. Escott had a total of 12 generators from Consumer's Gas and the Coast Guard and some personal generators. Some came from individual citizens.

Co-ordination of activities was done by volunteers, one woman stepped forward and organized the door to door search drivers. When the military left they went out and checked on those people who had been identified as 'at risk'. A lot of the volunteer organization was spontaneous.

The people in the community stepping forward to volunteer was the thing that worked well. Young people stayed to service generators -- and some worked 12-14 hours per day and then stayed overnight. Some more senior seniors did not ask for a lot. Art Page thought they would need the most, but when it came right down to it they needed the least. The seniors "did a bang up job -- they were not a drain on our limited resources."

Communications totally broke down. That was the biggest problem. There were a lot of complaints from people who said they had no communications. There were problems contacting the radio station in Brockville -- getting through the calls from people asking when their goldfish were going to die -- and Art Page thinks there should be an emergency line for people in positions of authority to get through with public safety bulletins.

Next time, Art Page would hope that Front of Escott would be much better organized -- that when volunteers were alerted they would go to their pre-delegated jobs. So the person assigned to generators could immediately go out to do that job, and the same for food and kerosene. Art Page thinks that they just were not familiar with the emergency plan -- and didn't know what to do. They never sat down and talked about it. Had they had a two hour meeting to say "what if?" things might have gone smoother.

Art Page worries that people are going to put the ice storm and the need for changes to arise therefrom "on the backburner and be forgotten about."

Art Page thinks "that the county at least should have a plan and they should coordinate an effort from each of those townships and draw them in at a monthly meeting -- or whatever -- and these people should go back to their own communities, their own council, and set up something in case something like that ever happens, a chemical spill, a forest fire." Art Page says that it would not take much -- "a little bit of training, or information, given to them on a 'what if' basis."

Art Page has no emergency training himself and the township plan was being updated at the time of the emergency.

Federal and Provincial politicians were in the township for a handshake and photo opportunity and then they were gone. As for the federal or provincial emergency people -- Art Page thinks that they might have been there in the background -- but "specifically I can't come up with anything." There were truckloads of stuff going to Brockville but Art Page has no idea on whose authority they arrived (maybe provincial). All communication with the public went through the Reeve.

Stress was a concern for Art Page. A lot of the illnesses that occurred were related to the stress environment. Everyone on council got sick, everyone except the deputy Reeve (Asbruek). All the council was sick at one time or another and Art Page thinks it was stress-related.

Young people -- the volunteers -- did better. They came through it better.

Art Page looked after 17 generators of all sizes -- some of which were too small to do any good except run a sump pump. They had three trucks with two generators each -- early on -- then as more came available there was less need. Art Page serviced them himself "when they could" -- there was a gentlemen close to the Rockport Centre. Servicing was rather limited because it was unrealistic to change the oil every 24 hours when they were running constantly.

"There was some stress involved." Art Page says that it was most frustrating to see one's neighbors with power when one did not have it oneself -- and someone would tell them it would be two or three days. Art Page lives on a hill and the community just below him did not have any "for five days later" -- words were exchanged "for no reason at all."

Art Page has no information on costs to the township -- he had recently returned from a three week vacation.

Communications "We need to have some alternate way to communicate with each other -- and this two-phone system (Lansdowne & Bell) -- it's just nonsense." There is a phone book put out by the Brockville Recorder, but for some reason it does not have all the phone numbers in it. So it's time consuming and frustrating.